


Where We Always Start (Again)

by navaan



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ficlet, Flash Fic, M/M, Pining, Post-Secret Empire, Pre-Slash, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-19 02:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11888460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: "We should move in together again," Steve said - and Tony who was stuck inside a wall panel tried to sit up in surprise and hit his head instead.





	Where We Always Start (Again)

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a Flashfic for the cap-ironman [Tuesday's Theme: TEAM](http://cap-ironman.dreamwidth.org/1785778.html)

"We should move in together again," Steve said - and Tony who was stuck inside a wall panel tried to sit up in surprise and hit his head instead.

"Be more careful, Tony," Steve admonished with a raised eyebrow and Tony was close to throwing a wrench at him, just because he knew the man's reflexes were good enough to deflect it before it had a chance to connect with his ridiculously handsome face. Before he repeated his words Steve watched him as if he was trying out something he'd tested out in his head a couple of times and wasn't sure would go over well. "We should move in together."

Tony freed himself of cables and wall panel and sat up without hitting his head this time. "Move in... together."

"Yes," Steve told him and empathized it with his raised hands. "As a team. The way it was before. At the mansion. At the tower. On that... island." He trailed of. "Like a team. Giving each other support and..."

"Support?" Tony knew he was staring, mostly because his head hurt from the fresh bump on his head and he knew now he misunderstood the meaning of Steve's words in that first second of surprise. _They_ weren't moving in together. _The Avengers_ were. 

"Yeah, it always worked out. Avengers together, taking care of each other. Maybe if we'd been living together someone would have caught on to a little Cosmic Cube fragment turning me Hydra."

Tony stared more and then rubbed at the bump that was forming at the back of his head to distract himself, biting his lip to keep silent. It hadn't helped when the world had been ending and Tony had kept secrets and it hadn't been helping any number of times before. But Steve looked at him with some hope in his eyes, waiting for agreement.

"You want all Avengers in one place again?"

Steve shrugged. "We'd be close by. You could have a lab on the premises and we could have a training room..."

"We'd have to suffer being around each other," Tony pointed out, but Steve was sitting on Tony's chair in Tony's new workshop in Tony's new company and watched him take apart his new walls to install new tech. Since Tony had been returned to his place in the world too, apparently they were on speaking terms again.

Okay.

Maybe things were going back to how they used to be.

Except he knew that was too much to hope for.

"I'm surprised anyone wants to be around me after everything." Steve's shoulders tensed up as he said it. As leader of Hydra he had nearly brought the world to its knees.

"Wasn't you," Tony says grudgingly. "But what do I know? I was the ghost in the machine."

Steve watched him carefully. "So," he said and he had that forlorn insecure look; one that Tony hadn't seen in a long time. It was the look of someone who as searching for a home, a place to belong.

For years, Steve had no reason to doubt himself and his place in this world. Now he doubted, like the young man Iron Man had gone through so many battles with. Tony's mouth went dry just remembering all they had gone through together - all the times they'd fought side by side and against each other. 

He cleared his throat and slowly asked: "So, for the team?"

"Yes, the team."

"All the teams."

"All the Avengers, yes."

He could already imagine all the strange looks and hard nos they'd be facing when they tried to get people to join their new cozy Avengers club house. "Okay," he said, glad that his bank account was looking healthy with new business coming in. "Where do we start, Steve?"

Finally, Steve's shoulders relaxed and he smiled. "Where we always start. We start with you and me."

"You and me," he repeated, dumbfounded. "Okay."

"You and me."

 _You and me. Moving in together_ , Tony's mind supplied and he looked away, at his tools and dirty hands, mulling over where they should set up shop this time. 

"For the team," Steve said and grinned. His eyes sparkled. 

"Of course." Tony nodded. But his mouth was still to dry too really talk this through and Steve's face had lit up like sunshine. 

_For you,_ Tony thought and sighed, resigning himself to the inevitable. But he too was smiling.


End file.
